"The government of Hili-li, by laws and by the encouragement of custom,
did much to prevent damage from these storms--which, as I have
intimated, were a combination of hurricane and snow-storm, with a very
sudden and rapid fall of temperature; and when the interval between two
of them was not greater than twenty years, the provisions made by the
state were ample to prevent loss of life. By the law of the land,
residence houses had to be built in such a manner that at least one room
in each house could be warmed by a fire. Fire for purposes of warmth was
never in Hili-li required, except during these storms; and all cooking
was done on a peculiar stove made chiefly of gold, the fuel of which was
either fish oil, or another oil termed by the boatmen who sold it
'continent oil'--or, rather, by a name corresponding in the Hili-li
language to those words in the English. The law further provided that on
the premises of each home wood should be kept, ready for use, in chests
of a size convenient for two persons to carry into the room in which it
was to be burned. By this means, the worst that could happen to a family
was that its members might suddenly at any time be confined to a single
room, comfortably warmed, for from thirty to a hundred hours, or
thereabouts.
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